A. Flannery O’Connor

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Flannery O’Connor

According to the author Flannery O’Connor she tries to portray the irony that the country people are viewed to good and well behaved. That they have good manners but on the contrary these people are the worst of character from the story of Joy, Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter, who was lame but one Bible salesman Manley Pointer takes advantage of her disability to make sexual advances by offering sex cards, bottle of whisky and condoms but when she rebuffs his overtures he takes away her artificial leg. The mother of Joy thought that this guy being a Bible salesman is well behaved and could be trusted but was nihilistic atheist. (O’Connor 89).

Eudora Welty’s Petrified Man.

The story ‘Petrified Man’ is about a man who does not exist actually by to provide but about women ordinary folk who met in beauty parlor and gossiped showing the ugly side of women who can cause hatred amongst one another by Leota giving a lame reason for the fall of Mrs. Fletcher’s hair are falling off because of pregnancy causing the woman to be disgusted by pregnancy and almost decide not to have another baby. This story shows how grotesque these southern ordinary women can be. (Welty 33).

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

The title ‘Invisible Man’ in the book seems to be inappropriate with the story. The word invisible should portray a man who is strong to tackle any opponent whoever it is but will always come out the winner. But the narrator, who is a black American, of the story seems to fall into one problem after another but will always come out bruised, he more than often loses battles which were faced by black people in the racial discrimination that was the hallmark of American History as he grew up. The story seems to be shrouded with ambiguity rather than reality when compared with the title. (Ellison all pages).

The Defender of Faith by Philip Roth.

In the book soldier in the rank of a sergeant Nathan Marx is a Jew and has been given responsibility over some soldiers below him to command. In the book he believes in the Jewish religion and has been determined to keep the faith. In his duty during training recruits he meets Private Sheldon Grossbart who is a fellow Jew and on realizing this Grossbart misuses the relationship by requesting for time out to attend religious events outside the camp but in reality he uses the time to do own things. But with time Marx came to know that Grossbart was conniving. Marx is characterized as a good person who is humane to grant Grossbart the leave on request, a good soldier and a good practicing Jew. But later he is determined to change to see all recruits as the same not allowing religion to lead him in making any decisions that can be against military rules. (Roth 15-70)

Part II

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The story is about a woman who has been imprisoned in her own house by her husband who does not allow her to go out or work but finds what to occupy her mind in the house in the form of a yellow wallpaper left by a previous tenant, the plot is then set in the paper. The author is narrating her own story or rather she is the main character in the story but it can not be inferred to be a true story though she seems to deviate the story to about a woman in the previous tenancy. The personal narration of the story by the author seems to give a lot of credibility to the story to the extend that the story seems to be a real life thing.

Under the Lion's Paw by Hamlin Garland and The Law of Life by Jack London.

The story in the book Under the Lion's Paw is about a man who is beaten by nature, the nature being Lion’s paw where it grips the main character hardly to the extend that he is frustrated by everything around him when he first suffered from an attack by grasshoppers in his farm but moved to anew place where the landlord took advantage of his vulnerability to hike the price on the land the character developed singlehandedly. The other book The Law of Life talks about a man who is aging and has to be left for the dead behind by his son hence the title by which the law of nature demands that one has to die one day. The books titles try to show how nature behaves to and seem to portray one nature but the stories are different.

The Open Boat by Stephen Crane.

The four characters in the book were given names starting with ‘c’ for three of them and the other one the names starts with ‘o’ the have been used in literature actively to portray the role of the characters that they serve in the literature context it cannot be a coincidence. The first letter is supposed to drive a certain message and build a certain character of the roles they are serving in the story.